In 2017, we were cast in a production of Candide together in Chicago. Gabbi gave me her phone number through a Postmates promo and we became instant friends. We spent the summer singing in the ensemble, going to karaoke bars, and sneaking into the front row of concerts with Photoshopped tickets. Gabbi moved back to Des Moines in 2018. I visited on a trip to Kansas City for a Colts game - we met for coffee in East Village, again as friends, and went our separate ways. We met up again a year later in Chicago, for a friend's birthday party, again as friends, and went our separate ways. In the spring of last year, after the pandemic seemed to be subsiding, I asked Gabbi if she wanted to meet halfway in Davenport, IA and go to the art museum. We laughed as we always had, just constant laughter, a laughter that hasn't stopped. We promised to spend more time together. And as summer turned to fall, and fall to winter, and winter back into the spring season that first gave us a glimpse of the future ahead of us, we promised to spend even more time together. Like, all the time. We got engaged in the Rose Garden, surrounded by our families.